Trucking accidents can be absolutely devastating, and they have potential to do far more damage to your health – and your future – than a car accident. The massive size of trucks, and the ruthless companies employing them, can make you feel helpless when facing the trauma and imposing medical costs of a truck crash.

You are not alone in your fight. You need a truck accident lawyer that has experience helping people who have been in your situation before. The attorneys at Kevin P Landry have more than 20 years of combined experience. We have counseled hundreds of victims who have lost their health, livelihood or even a loved one to trucking accidents, so we understand far too well the grief and stress that can follow as you try to recover and rebuild your life.

Understanding Negligence

If you’re the victim of a trucking accident, it’s possible that the truck driver is responsible for the crash because he or she acted with negligence. A truck’s size makes it extremely important that the driver be careful, responsible and attentive at all times.

In cases of truck accident negligence, the driver may have acted in a careless manner that caused a disastrous wreck. To get the compensation you need to recover, your attorney will need to prove that the truck driver of the trucking company was negligent and thus liable.

There are four elements to proving negligence:

Duty. There must be a legal duty from one party to another. In cases of truck accident negligence, this means a duty for the driver to drive responsibly and within the law, and for the trucking company to maintain safe loading and maintenance practices.

Breach. There must be a breach of this legal duty by one party failing to act as described above.

Causation. It was the offender’s actions (or inactions) that caused the injury and/or damage to your property.

Damages. You were harmed or injured as a result of the offender’s actions.

An attorney at our law offices in Providence can seek to establish the truck driver or the company acted irresponsibly in “neglect” of their duties, and should be held liable for all consequent injuries and damages.

Negligence in Trucking Accidents

There are a number of ways that a trucking company might breach their legal duty and put other motorists in serious danger. Some of these include allowing trucks with faulty parts to operate, or exerting pressure on drivers to make unrealistic delivery deadlines.

Another way trucking companies can be held liable for negligence is by employing inadequately trained or inexperienced drivers who aren’t equipped to safely handle an over-sized vehicle. Hiring and training protocols for truck drivers are must be strict, and allowing drivers who haven’t had the required training to get behind the wheel puts all motorists in danger.

Trucking companies may also allow their trucks to be loaded improperly, making the truck and/or its cargo load unstable – a dangerous lapse of caution or judgment that could have terrible consequences on the road.

All of these factors may qualify as truck accident negligence, and the trucking company should be held legally accountable. Our attorneys know how to do that.

Truck Driver Negligence

If a truck driver acts negligently, the consequences can be traumatic and extremely costly. When behind the wheel of a vehicle that can weigh up to 80,000 pounds, it is critical the driver put the highest premium on safety and caution.

Sometimes, truck drivers neglect to do this and allow themselves to be distracted, irresponsible or even impaired. Common causes for truck driver negligence are:

Fatigue. Truck drivers are under strict guidelines regulating hours of service and amount of sleep, but pressure to meet deadlines or a misjudgment of fatigue level can cause them to drive longer than is safely possible.

Alcohol or drugs. Operating a truck under the influence of alcohol, prescription or non-prescription drugs can lead to catastrophic consequences on the road.

Speeding. The size of most trucks means that they must be handled with extreme caution. Because trucks maneuver, accelerate and decelerate differently than cars, they are more difficult to control, especially at high speeds. This makes speeding behind the wheel of a truck an inexcusably negligent act.

Dangerous lane changes. A truck’s size can often make changing lanes more challenging. Trucks require more stopping distance, which can pose a dangerous problem if one has changed lanes in front of you.

Failure to check blind spots. The large number of blind spots a truck has may cause the driver to steer right into you when changing lanes. Trucks have numerous mirrors for these blind spots, but if the driver fails to check even one of them, it could result in an unsafe lane change and a terrible accident.

Drivers who are found to be guilty of these or any other forms of negligence can be held liable for your injuries and damages. If truck driver negligence can be connected to delivery and deadline pressures from the trucking company, then the trucking company can be found liable for negligence as well.

A trucking company may allow trucks with defective parts or faulty brakes to take the road because of lax inspection protocols. Your health and future being jeopardized because of a trucking company’s greed or laziness is unacceptable.

Additionally, an attorney can hold the company that manufactured a defective product responsible when the defect causes harm. This is known as products liability law.

Establishing a Legal Claim for Negligence

Trucks often have very complex insurance plans that make suing for the proper compensation extremely complicated. Your Providence truck accident attorney will seek to establish truck driver negligence or trucking company negligence to prove liability and get you maximum compensation.

Our experienced legal team will seek to show that the four elements of negligence were present, and that the truck driver or company’s actions or inactions resulted in the accident that caused your injuries or property damage. This may include investigating driver logs, reports, pictures, videos or anything else that could help to prove your case.

All trucking employers or drivers must comply with the rules and regulations of the U.S. Department of Transportation, not just for their own safety, but for that of all motor vehicle drivers on the road. The truck accident lawyers at our law firm will seek to ensure that if they didn’t, they’ll pay for it.

Contact a Providence Truck Accident Attorney

Trucking companies are ruthless when it comes to protecting themselves, and they will employ every measure to refute your claims if they are responsible for your suffering. If you’ve been in a trucking accident, you’ll need an experienced legal team for proving negligence and establishing liability of the truck driver or company.

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About Kevin

My name is Kevin P. Landry, and I am a personal injury attorney. I help people who are hurting, suffering or being taken advantage of. I also help families through unexpected deaths, and other traumatic events.